Experimenta Life Forms
Featuring: Brad Darkson (SA); Thomas Marcusson (NSW); PluginHUMAN (Dr Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer) (VIC); Helen Pynor (NSW); and Dominic Redfern (VIC)
Curators: Jonathan Parsons and Lubi Thomas.
Associate Curator: Jessica Clark.
RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
10 September to 14 November
Touring nationally until 2023

Experimenta Life Forms International Triennial of Media Art Exhibition & Commissioned Artists Announcement
Philosophers have wrestled with defining life for thousands of years. Experimenta Life Forms reveals how contemporary artists are approaching this perennial question, at a time when technological change and new research findings are making definitions of ‘life’ increasingly difficult to pin down.

What new life formations are emerging through technological and biological adaptation, invention or discovery? What are the ethical questions, particularly now that scientific research is identifying sentience in animals, plant-life, and may soon be found in our machines?

The exhibition considers how developments in biological and artificial life forms and an increasing awareness of biological interdependency are shifting our human-centric thinking. Research into everything from microbes and fungi to animals is demonstrating that many living things have agency and in some cases sentience. These findings shift humans from a central location to being just one node in a complex network, challenging our existing social and political paradigm.

ANAT has again partnered with Experimenta, and with new partner SymbioticA, in the commissioning process for the Triennial. Through these partnerships, Experimenta is able to draw on ANAT and SymbioticA’s expertise in creative research and development, maximising support for artists through the full life cycle of their projects – from development to presentation to touring.

For more details